Life and Things

Hope everyone had a lovely Yule! Ours was pretty good. I got books, a hand-carved tiki, handcrafted Dalek magnets (soooo cute! I collect daleks 😆). I also collect snow globes, and my family gave me a snow globe from the play Aladdin.

Life has been hectic, what with two holidays. Tried to get reading done, but well…  We went out Christmas and it was mostly good. The poor server was the only one there. We gave her extra tip.

My grandparents property was to have closed on the 28th, but there was a last minute issue with the lender. I hope lot works out, and we can stop dragging things out.

 

Books read, reviewed, and posted/scheduled this past week

Quackery by Lydia Kang & Nate Pedersen, 5*

Island of Exiles by Erica Cameron, 4*

Sea of Strangers by Erica Cameron, 4*

 

Favourite Read of the Week

ackery by Lydia Kang & Nate Pedersen

 

‘What won’t we try in our quest for perfect health, beauty, and the fountain of youth?

Well, just imagine a time when doctors prescribed morphine for crying infants. When liquefied gold was touted as immortality in a glass. And when strychnine—yes, that strychnine, the one used in rat poison—was dosed like Viagra.

Looking back with fascination, horror, and not a little dash of dark, knowing humor, Quackery recounts the lively, at times unbelievable, history of medical misfires and malpractices. Ranging from the merely weird to the outright dangerous, here are dozens of outlandish, morbidly hilarious “treatments”—conceived by doctors and scientists, by spiritualists and snake oil salesmen (yes, they literally tried to sell snake oil)—that were predicated on a range of cluelessness, trial and error, and straight-up scams. With vintage illustrations, photographs, and advertisements throughout, Quackery seamlessly combines macabre humor with science and storytelling to reveal an important and disturbing side of the ever-evolving field of medicine.

 

Current Read

 Times bestselling author of The Girl Who Came Home turns the clock back one hundred years to a time when two young girls from Cottingley, Yorkshire, convinced the world that they had done the impossible and photographed fairies in their garden. Now, in her newest novel, international bestseller Hazel Gaynor reimagines their story.

1917… It was inexplicable, impossible, but it had to be true—didn’t it? When two young cousins, Frances Griffiths and Elsie Wright from Cottingley, England, claim to have photographed fairies at the bottom of the garden, their parents are astonished. But when one of the great novelists of the time, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, becomes convinced of the photographs’ authenticity, the girls become a national sensation, their discovery offering hope to those longing for something to believe in amid a world ravaged by war. Frances and Elsie will hide their secret for many decades. But Frances longs for the truth to be told.

One hundred years later… When Olivia Kavanagh finds an old manuscript in her late grandfather’s bookshop she becomes fascinated by the story it tells of two young girls who mystified the world. But it is the discovery of an old photograph that leads her to realize how the fairy girls’ lives intertwine with hers, connecting past to present, and blurring her understanding of what is real and what is imagined. As she begins to understand why a nation once believed in fairies, can Olivia find a way to believe in herself?’

 

 

Next Up (maybe)

Fire and Fate by Simone Pond,  Silver Dagger

Fire and Chains by Simone Pond,  Silver Dagger

Fire and Blood by Simone Pond,  Silver Daggero mm

Besieged by Kevin Hearne CBR

How to Be a Stoic by Massimo Pigliucci, CBR

Dragon Teeth by Michael Crichton. CBR

Hour of Mischief Aimee Hyndman

Season of Wind by Aimee Hyndman

 

Book Haul

Running in the Dark by Sam Reaves

The silence of a prairie night hides many secrets.

Needing to get out of Manhattan after a personal tragedy, Abby Markstein accepts a teaching job in the heart of flyover country. One night while jogging through a deserted hollow, she comes upon a car consumed in flames. The only thing more horrifying than the dead man at the wheel is the live one smiling at her in the livid glow of the fire.

Welcome to Lewisburg, Indiana.

The lone witness to the gruesome roadside slaying, Abby quickly learns that the quiet town conceals many secrets. When another brutal murder takes place, she starts seeing signs that somebody is watching her. And this time, running will not help her hide.,